Star Trek - [Mirror Universe 003]

by Shards

  "Why would we want to do that?"

  Jellico looked astounded. "Because it's a doomsday weapon, Mac," he said, gesturing toward the crates and clearly amazed that he needed to explain it. "If we destroy this shipment, we can-"

  "We can what? Prevent the doomsday weapon from being made? When this vessel goes missing, they'll just arrange another shipment from somewhere else, sooner or later."

  "Then what are you suggesting? That we deliver it?"

  "That's exactly right."

  Jellico paled. "You can't be serious."

  "It makes sense," said Soleta.

  He turned to her as if she had just stabbed him in the back. "How can you say that?"

  "My mouth forms the words; it's not all that difficult."

  "Consider, Jellico," said Mac. "If a doomsday weapon is going to exist, why shouldn't we be the ones in control of it?"

  "Because we'll be tempted to use it!"

  "If the Alliance has it, they'll be far more than tempted."

  "He is quite correct," said Selar. "We have every reason to believe that the Alliance has allowed the Romulans to exist unmolested-or relatively so-because they have been waiting precisely for the creation of this sort of weapon. At present, even the Alliance does not possess weaponry capable of annihilating an entire world. A Thalaron bomb will provide them with exactly that. They would not desire such a device unless they fully intended to use it."

  "Even if we manage to acquire this bomb," said Jellico, "that won't necessarily prevent the Alliance from doing so."

  "Maybe. But maybe it will persuade them not to use it," said Soleta. "After all, if they know we have it and can retaliate in kind should they employ it, that knowledge might serve to prevent them from utilizing it in the first place."

  Jellico looked as if he were about to reply, but Mac was already turning to Selar. "The techniques used to create your...appearance," he said. "Can you replicate them? Disguise others to look like Romulans?"

  Slowly, she nodded. "I could cannibalize some of the equipment in this vessel's medlab. The transformation would be far more painful for the subject than the technique used on me. It might even kill a human..."

  "I'm not considering using it on a human."

  She eyed him. "You mean yourself." He nodded slowly. "Very well. Come with me. We will get started."

  Selar and Mac walked out. Jellico, meanwhile, was still staring at the crates and slowly shaking his head. "Problem, Jellico?" said Soleta.

  He turned to her and said, "All this talk about using our own weapon to deter the Alliance from using it first. But what's to stop us from using it in the first place?"

  "That's easy," said Soleta. "We're the good guys."

  "Are we? Are you sure?"

  Soleta didn't reply.

  Hiren, Praetor of the Romulan Alliance, was not one typically to stand on ceremony. So it was that he literally sprinted down the corridor leading to his private study upon learning that the final element for Project Parity had finally arrived. A team of scientists had beamed down with it and were prepared to assemble the device that would finally put them on equal footing with the Alliance.

  Hiren knew what they said about him. He knew that they claimed he was swallowed in paranoia to the point of near insanity. He knew that they claimed he was unfit to rule and should be forced out of office at the earliest opportunity. He knew that they claimed he was the Alliance's puppet, kowtowing to their every whim in exchange for questionable promises of safety.

  They know nothing of me. Nothing.

  He turned the corner and saw that guards were standing to either side of the study doors. He remembered that he had posted them there, but abruptly he began to second-guess himself. The eyes and ears of the Alliance were everywhere, and he didn't need random guards listening in on his plans. "Has everything been brought in?" he said. The guards nodded. "Very well. You may leave."

  The guards exchanged confused looks. That was acceptable to Hiren. Let them be confused. There was no need for them to be aware of what was happening. The assorted parts for Project Parity had been brought from half a dozen different points around the city, each prepared independently so that no individuals save Hiren and the chief designer would know what the nature of the final device would be. And what with the chief designer having met with a tragic accident just two days earlier-having thrown himself off a cliff after stabbing himself repeatedly-Hiren only had to worry about his own trustworthiness. Of that, as always, he was fully confident.

  Of course, there was the matter of the scientists themselves. They were the ones who were going to be working from the chief designer's plans and constructing the device. Naturally, they were going to figure out what it was they were assembling. But that was acceptable. After all, once the device was assembled, there was nothing that could be done to disassemble it. Hiren would have his weapon, parity would be achieved with the Alliance, and all would be well. And if the scientists proved to be a problem down the road, well...

  ...there were plenty of cliffs out there.

  The guards had obediently departed, and Hiren walked into his private study. He looked with approval at the assorted containers stacked neatly. Standing at the far end were three Romulan scientists, two female and one male.

  "Greetings," he said. "I am Hiren, Praetor of the Romulan Alliance."

  "Yes. We know," said one of the females. There was an edge to her voice, a harshness that seemed wholly inappropriate to the occasion. Typically, people groveled upon meeting Hiren, which was the way he preferred it.

  Plus, there was something vaguely familiar in her voice. He tilted his head thoughtfully and said, "Have we met, young woman?"

  "On several occasions, yes." She walked slowly toward him. The far end of the study had been cast in shadow since the sun was setting, and even in the best of light, Hiren's eyes were not what they once were. "I was usually in the company of my father."

  "Your father?"

  "Yes." She was close enough now that her features were clearer to him. "Perhaps you remember him? His name was Rojan. You had him killed."

  Hiren's mouth moved, but no words came out at first. Then he found his breath and started to cry out for help. Even as he did so, however, the male Romulan-who had not moved a muscle until that moment-was across the room, covering the distance in one leap like some sort of beast. He drove a knee into Hiren's chest, knocking him to the ground, and a face both familiar and unfamiliar snarled down at Hiren.

  "Remember me?" said the male Romulan. "You condemned me to die in the mines of Remus because I committed the unpardonable crime of refusing to murder my father."

  The ears, the brow, were Romulan, but the eyes burned with an intensity that Hiren would never forget, even though they had been in a much younger face when he'd last seen them. "Muck," he whispered.

  "So you called me. Now I am Mac. And perhaps I should make up for that uncommitted murder right now."

  The other woman now stepped forward and said firmly, "Is this what you intended with this mission, Mac? To kill the Praetor?"

  "Are you going to stop me?"

  "No. I simply wish to know."

  "If he doesn't," said Soleta, moving toward him, "then I will."

  "And is that," said the other woman sharply, "how you are going to prove that you are 'the good guys'? By murdering someone in the name of vengeance?"

  "In the name of justice," Mac said.

  "Never confuse the two. I never do." She came over to him and said, "We have everything we desire. The entire weapon is right here. One assumes that Hiren has the plans to assemble it. Once he provides us with those..."

  "Then you kill me," Hiren said, mentally upbraiding himself for dismissing the guards. There was no one to whom he could call for help, thanks to his own stupidity. "Hardly an incentive for me to tell you how to complete the..." He hesitated.

  "Weapon, you idiot," said Mac. "The word you're hesitating to speak is 'weapon,' as if we didn't know what-"

  Sudde
nly there were shouts from outside the Praetor's study, shots fired, orders issued, and more shots.

  The former Muck hauled the Praetor to his feet. "Expecting company?"

  The doors to the Praetor's private study burst open. A Klingon strode in. His face was narrow, and his beard and temples were tinged with gray, but he looked as formidable as any Klingon Hiren had ever seen. Right behind him came a Cardassian. His skin was deathly pale, his black hair slicked back, and-curiously-several pieces of bone were missing from the characteristic ridges on his face. Backing them up was a squadron of Alliance guards, a mix of Cardassian and Klingon troops.

  "I am Krone," said the Klingon and, indicating the Cardassian just behind him, continued, "And this is Tome Ari. We were told you would be expecting us."

  Not this soon, damn you. Not for days yet.

  "Of course," said Hiren, forcing a smile.

  Tome Ari looked suspiciously at the three other figures in the room. "Who are they?" he demanded.

  Everything froze as Hiren realized he was holding the fate of three people in his hands, and at least two of those people would like to see him dead.

  On the bridge of the Excalibur, Kalinda suddenly sat bolt upright in her seat and said, "Change course. Now."

  The abrupt pronouncement caught Jellico off guard. Robin Lefler turned to Kalinda and said, "What?"

  Kalinda ignored both of them. She was on her feet and saying, "You heard me, McHenry. Now!"

  As you wish, Kalinda.

  The Excalibur had been en route to Romulus. Mac, Soleta, and Selar had taken the transport vessel and had by that point arrived at their destination. There were any number of Romulan vessels orbiting the Romulan homeworld, so the transport was the logical means for Mac and his crew to penetrate Romulan security. The Excalibur had been approaching slowly to serve as backup, moving into communication range but not sensor range.

  But there had been an abrupt change of plan as Romulan space receded on the viewscreen. "What the hell is going on? What are you doing!?" said Jellico.

  Kalinda was undeterred by his anger. "Remember the Alliance ship that broke off from the science transport? McHenry said a vessel matching its ion trail is coming in from warp space. It's heavily armed, and we are no match for it. He's operating on the assumption that they have a description of this vessel and will attack on sight. So it makes sense for us to keep out of sight."

  "And they're heading for Romulus?"

  "Yes, Edward," said Kalinda. "So it would seem."

  Jellico and Robin exchanged worried looks. "If they're planning to meet with the Praetor..." said Robin.

  "Who else would they be meeting with?"

  "Then this could pose a serious problem for Mac and the others. What should we do, Jellico?"

  "We wait," said Jellico, "and we hope that Mac can lie his way out of whatever situation he finds himself in."

  Mac feigned confusion to the best of his ability and said, "Noble Krone, honored Tome Ari, my associates and I have absolutely no idea why you should be surprised that we're here. What reason would you have to think that something unusual transpired in our voyage here?"

  He folded his arms and waited. His hand rested comfortably on the palm-sized blaster that was secreted just inside his tunic. If Krone, Tome Ari, or any of their men made any sort of abrupt move, Mac would open fire and hope for the best.

  Krone exchanged a glance with Tome Ari and then growled. "We were informed that representatives of the Alliance had boarded your vessel to provide...protection. Commandeered it, actually. Took command. Or so we were told."

  "Who made that allegation?" Selar spoke up.

  "The commander of the Warship Blackmorn, the ship that transported us here," said Tome Ari. "He broke off from your vessel to rendezvous with us at Terok Nor so that we could come here and see for ourselves this masterful weapon you're about to create for us." That last was directed more to Hiren than it was to Selar.

  "Well," Selar said carefully, looking as if she were immensely concerned for Tome Ari's and Krone's feelings, "I would never wish to imply that your commander was less than candid with you. Never for all the world. Yet on the other hand, you are faced with the irrefutable proof of your own eyes. We are here, and there is no sign of your representatives, and if they were in charge, certainly they would have come down here instead of us, would they not?"

  "That would have been my assumption," said Tome Ari.

  "Well, then," said Selar, "it appears we have a miscommunication here."

  "Yes, and fortunately, there has been no harm done," said Hiren. He brought his hands together and rubbed them briskly. "And my team of scientists here are prepared to assemble the Thalaron bomb, just as I have long promised."

  "Yes, very long promised," rumbled Krone. "There are some who believed that promises were all we would see."

  "And there were others," said Tome Ari, looking suspiciously at Mac, as if trying to determine where he should know him from, "who believed that you were planning to make it secretly and use it against us, or at least threaten to do so."

  The Praetor harrumphed. "Nonsense. Nonsense and calumnies. I have given my word as Praetor, and the Praetor's word is his bond. Now, if you wouldn't mind giving my scientists a bit of space."

  "Space?"

  "This is a delicate procedure," said Soleta. "Having you watching over our shoulders would add stress that, frankly, we do not need. Plus, if something were to go wrong and either of you were injured as a result, the recriminations would be severe. None of us needs that."

  There was a long pause, and Mac prepared to yank out his blaster and begin shooting.

  "Very well," said Tome Ari. He smiled, which, on his face, gave him the appearance of a death's head skull. "I'm quite sure that Hiren can provide us with suitable accommodations while you assemble the device. By all means, be careful, and take your time-but not too much time." He started to turn away and made a bit too much of a show of turning back and saying, "Oh, and we will be monitoring your vessel's energy emissions. If we see even the slightest attempt to beam you and the bomb's components off the planet's surface, we will blow it to atoms."

  "That sounds fair," said Mac evenly. He noticed that Krone was staring at him. "Is there a problem, honored one?"

  "You seem familiar to me," said Krone. "Why would that be?"

  Mac shrugged. "I've no idea, honored one. To the best of my knowledge, we have never met."

  Krone continued to study him for a moment and then turned away with a dissatisfied grunt.

  Moments later, the room was filled only with Romulans or pseudo-Romulans. It was only at that point that Mac eased his hand out of his tunic, away from his blaster, and he said to Hiren, "Why didn't you turn us in?"

  "What a superb idea," said Hiren sarcastically. "Inform representatives of the Alliance that the notorious commander of the Excalibur and two of his crew are standing right here. It would convince them that I'm allied with you, and my life wouldn't be worth spit. And if by some miracle I managed to persuade them that I didn't know who you were..."

  "It makes you appear incompetent and easily fooled," said Soleta. Hiren nodded. Soleta turned to Selar and said, "You spoke quickly and well. Good job."

  "Thank you," said Selar. "I only wish I knew what we do now."

  "Now?" said Mac. "That's obvious: We build a bomb."